No Mongoose in the Mimosa

The Campbell Award for a new writer has a wonderful aid this year. M. David Blake with the support of Bruce Bethke at Stupefying Stories has a compiled a FREE anthology of stories written by new authors eligible for the Campbell Awards. As editor of  Astounding Science Fiction   (renamed  Analog Science Fiction and Fact ) from 1937 until his death in 1971,  John W. Campbell, Jr.   helped shape the "Golden Age" of science fiction. His influence launched the careers of dozens of famous writers including Lester del Rey and A.E. van  Vogt. The  John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer  is presented annually at WorldCon to an outstanding author whose first professional work of science fiction or fantasy was published within the previous two years. In the words of M. David Blake: Now, for the first time in the award's 40-year history, the  2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology  provides a much-needed and long-overdue guide to t...

Do you like to get free ebooks for your Kindle? Those without a Kindle can read these free ebooks on a computer or android device. For your computer, you can use the free Kindle emulator from Amazon or Calibre . If you have an android device, you can download the Amazon Android App . I've reread a number of classic novels that are available free at Amazon. I've also read newer novels offered in free promotions by other authors for a limited time on Amazon. Next weekend, I'm giving away promotional copies too. Why am I doing this? Publicity. Particularly, to see whether I can drum up some traffic for my latest offering Tunnel at the End of the Dark . No, I'm not offering Tunnel at the End of the Dark for free in this promotion, but the novel is a sequel to a story I am offering for free: The Princess, the Knight & the Knave . Tunnel at the End of the Dark continues the adventures of fifteen-year-old stage illusionist Matt Collins in a medieval world of knig...

Ideas for short stories come in bursts and pieces. Some incubate for years. Some are too compelling to let go until you get them written. Sometimes the plot or characters don't do justice to the concept. Sometimes the plot is better than the idea. Sometimes nobody likes the characters. Sometimes you have to come back much later and use the concept in a completely different way. Good or bad, these short stories have one thing in common. Outside of your critique group, no one gets to read them until they are published. These days it's easy enough to publish on your own. Simply select from the stories you've churned out, make a collection, wrap them in an electronic bundle, and publish them on your web site, or blog, or Amazon, or Kobo, or B&N, or Smashwords, or ... well, you get the idea. But that's still no guarantee that anyone other than your friends--and you're not entirely sure of them--will bother to read. The best way to get a shot at an audience for a sh...